


An Unsung Melody is Mine (For Safekeeping)

by Numfar



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Side Vex/Percy/Vax
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 22:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8639860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Numfar/pseuds/Numfar
Summary: At fifteen, Kaylie is forced to move in with her father—a man she doesn't know and doesn't want to know. But the universe doesn't like to give Kaylie what she wants, and Scanlan Shorthalt is determined to prove that he can be a good father...or at least a decent one.





	

 

 

Kaylie woke on the 26th of August to the sound of the obnoxious text notification sound on Marie’s cell phone; in that regard, at least, it was like every other day for the past month. The feeling of foreboding Kaylie had had about that day was lessened somewhat by the realization that soon, she would no longer have to hear that sound approximately four thousand times per day. It was a nice thought, and she clung to it as she pulled the covers over her head and tried to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, less than a minute later the noise was back, this time three times in succession, and Kaylie could hear Marie typing her reply from the bed below hers, so she gave up on the concept of quiet and got out of bed.

 

She finished her packing by ten, efficiently avoiding eye contact with the other inhabitants of the house the whole time. She wasn’t really in the mood for their jealous looks or their congratulations, as if she was going to become a princess and live in a castle instead of moving to another city to live with a wannabe musician-turned mediocre DJ.

 

Scanlan was supposed to be coming at 11:30, and Kaylie wondered briefly if he would be late, or if he’d be perfectly on time to prove something about how responsible he could be. Not that he’d need to—he’d already gotten custody after all—but all their interactions had made it clear that he really wanted Kaylie to like him. For what purpose, she wasn’t sure yet, but she’d probably be finding that out soon. It was one thing to play the doting father during a few brief phone calls and one incredibly awkward face-to-face conversation, Kaylie figured, but it would be entirely another to keep the act up day-in, day-out when they were living together.

 

But she had low expectations and was very experienced at taking care of herself, so Kaylie would be fine (as she’d been reminding herself multiple times a day since she’d first found out Scanlan was trying to get custody of her).

 

It turned she’d underestimated her father’s desire to please (or maybe he’d just overestimated traffic), because he showed up a half an hour early. Kaylie didn’t see him pull up herself, since she was sitting in the kitchen eating cereal, but Marie and Alex had been awkwardly standing by the front window for a while (probably trying to be subtle but failing spectacularly), and she heard some excited squealing when it happened. Kaylie chose to stay where she was and finish her cereal. Ms. Martinsek, presumably having heard the commotion from her office, walked into the front room as the bell was ringing. Kaylie slowly got up and washed her bowl while she heard the door opening and Ms. Martinsek greeting Scanlan, then made her way to the front to see her father for the first time in weeks.

 

He looked about the same, she concluded when she reached the doorway to the front room. Not that she had the best view, with Alex and Marie standing awfully close to him and Daniela in the corner looking at her phone, presumably pretending it was just a coincidence that she happened to be in the room where all the drama was expected to happn.

 

“That’s quite the car you’ve got,” Ms. Martinsek commented. Kaylie shifted her gaze to the window and could see a ridiculous red sports car parked out front. Probably something foreign and very expensive, she figured, not that she knew anything at all about cars. Another thing for her and her father to not talk about, then.

 

Kaylie was pretty sure she detected a note of judgement along with the amusement in her foster parent’s tone, but if Scanlan noticed, he didn’t show it. “Thanks!” he said with what was, in Kaylie’s opinion, far more enthusiasm than the situation warranted. “It’s great, isn’t it? I think it suits me.”

 

Kaylie probably wasn’t the only person in the room to snort at that, but she was definitely the loudest. Scanlan turned to look in the direction of the noise and his face somehow became even more excited when he saw her. “Kaylie!” he exclaimed, “It’s great to see you again!” Kaylie nodded slightly, the most agreement she could muster.

 

Scanlan paused for a moment and his expression fell ever so slightly, presumably noticing her lack of enthusiasm. “Are you ready to go?” he asked, slightly awkward now, probably trying not to overstep. “Do you need help packing or anything? I know I’m a little early…”

 

Kaylie shook her head. “No, I’m ready. I’ll just go get my stuff, then,” she said, tilting her head toward the bedroom she’d been sharing for the past couple months.

 

“I can help you carry them!” Scanlan said immediately. “I can carry them all! I’m stronger than I look, I promise.” Kaylie shrugged and then nodded, because she certainly wasn’t going to pass on an opportunity to get out of the heavy lifting, and showed him to the room. He immediately picked up two bags and started carrying them to the car. He was visibly struggling with the weight—they were obviously heavier than he’d been expecting, but he wasn’t willing to admit defeat and just carry one at a time.

 

While Scanlan was outside loading the car, Alex sidled up to Kaylie and whispered, “Your dad is so _cool_ ,” looking to be genuinely in awe. Kaylie rolled her eyes and almost said something along the lines of “you can have him if you want,” but realized that would be rather unfair of her to say. As much as she disliked Scanlan, she did acknowledge that she was getting something of an opportunity here—she was going to move to a big city and live somewhere where she’d have her own bedroom, and Alex and the other girls here...probably would never get that. Not until they aged out and managed to pay for it themselves, anyway.

 

Still, what Alex (and many other teen girls like her, if the man’s fucking fansites were any indicator) saw in Scanlan was a mystery to Kaylie. And it wasn’t like she hadn’t tried to understand, either. She’d grown up hearing her mother go on and on about how _wonderful_ her father was, how charming and talented and and charismatic, but none of it ever seemed quite right to Kaylie. _If he’s so amazing, why isn’t he here?_ , she’d thought. Her mom had told her that he was a musician, that he’d left because he was on tour and needed to work on his art, but Kaylie had spent much of middle school scouring the internet for a musician named Scanlan (mom hadn’t given her a last name) and she couldn’t find a damn thing. So he must not have been that great of a musician, Kaylie had figured, meaning he had even less of a reason for not sticking around.

 

Years later, when Kaylie’s mother died and she found herself in foster care with even less than she’d ever had before, she’d returned to her search, fueled by a new rage, and this time she’d been able to find a band that had been in Detroit in the summer of 2000 that had a singer named Scanlan. His face matched the one photograph her mom had shown Kaylie, and the internet told her Scanlan Shorthalt was now a successful DJ for WRXL in Chicago, and that listeners loved his outrageous banter with his co-hosts. Knowing that he had money, that he was doing well, had somehow made it all worse—he was living it up in Chicago without a care in the world for the lives he’d forever altered in Detroit. So, she’d bought herself a bus ticket and gone to give the asshole a piece of her mind.

 

(Ms. Martinsek had been furious, of course, since she hadn’t bothered to tell anyone where she was going, but the disappointment of a guardian she barely knew didn’t really register on Kaylie’s radar, and she was used to trouble anyway.)

 

When she'd finally confronted Scanlan, it had gone...differently than she’d expected. She hadn’t been able to get into the building where she knew he worked, so she’d just waited outside for him to leave after his show. He’d thought she was a fan at first, and that display of ego at least she had predicted, but then everything went sideways. He’d sworn up and down that he hadn’t known she existed, that he wished he could have been there, and when she told him about her mother, he said she should come stay with him. And then he’d been calling his lawyer friend to ask about getting custody (after Kaylie had made it clear she didn’t believe his offer was genuine), and Kaylie hadn’t even gotten to punch him like she’d planned (she’d been thinking about it in detail for the entire 5 hour-long bus ride there, looking forward to it, but in the end she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Not with that sad, repentant look on his face).

 

Once the lawyer had started asking questions, it had become clear that Kaylie was definitely not supposed to be there, and she’d taken that as her cue to take off running before he tried to hug her or something (or before she got the urge to _let_ him).

 

There’d been a lot of phone calls after that while Scanlan’s lawyers sorted out the custody stuff, but Kaylie kept them short. Because that first conversation had torn apart so much of what Kaylie knew about him and about her family, her _life_. He’d batted his eyelashes and made a sad face and she’d almost been convinced that he was a decent person for a moment there. Time apart had helped set her head straight again.

 

So really, Kaylie realized as Alex walked away (probably to go fangirl with Marie), she technically _did_ understand the Scanlan effect. She’d experienced the powers of his charm firsthand. But that didn’t mean she saw that charm as anything other than carefully-calculated bullshit.

 

He finished loading up the car a few minutes later and Kaylie said her awkward goodbyes. Maybe she should have gotten more attached to the other people in her foster home after living there for about three months, but she had been too preoccupied with grief for her mother to socialize, and none of the other girls here were really her type of people anyway. Too squeaky clean. She’d already said her goodbyes to her friends from school, not that she was especially close to them either. Maybe she’d find people in Chicago. Or maybe not; Kaylie had always been fine on her own.

 

After they left, it was a four-and-a-half hour drive to Chicago, about 95% of it going past cornfields. Scanlan tried to make conversation about how they’d get her settled in and the new school she’d be starting at soon, but Kaylie mostly tuned it out. She spent the ride looking out the window and marvelling at how you could travel hundreds of miles in this country and see absolutely no change in scenery.

 

When they reached Chicago, of course, the view out the window changed a lot; Kaylie tried not to gawk at the gigantic buildings, the statues, the boats on the river, the _people_ . She’d only been here the one time before, and she’d been so single-minded that she only took in the scenery as another reason to hate the man who lived there, one more sign of all the privilege he had. But now, it was kind of breathtaking how beautiful and full of _life_ the city was. And she was about to be a part of it.

 

“It’s pretty cool, isn’t it?” said Scanlan, apparently noticing her looking. She glanced over at him to see him smiling in a way that was a lot less strained than his expression had been for the past few hours. Kaylie just nodded.

 

Scanlan’s apartment, which they reached a few minutes later, was in one of those giant buildings downtown. Because of course it was.

 

It wasn’t actually as ridiculously huge as she’d imagined Scanlan’s home to be, but considering its location, it was probably still ridiculously expensive. He gave her an enthusiastic tour, showing her a kitchen, a living room space with expensive-looking furniture, a bathroom (with a ridiculously large tub) and the two bedrooms.

 

“This one’s me,” he said, gesturing to the door on the left. “It’s generally a total mess; you probably don’t wanna go in there. I mean, you can, if you want to, nothing is, like, off-limits or anything. Just, uh, knock first? Yeah.” Kaylie watched with amusement while he rambled, before walking down the hall and gesturing dramatically at the last door. “And this is your room!” he said, opening the door.

 

It was a nice room. Kaylie sort of wanted to find fault with it on principle, but it was tastefully decorated, not nearly as ostentatious as Scanlan’s room, and the bed was far bigger than any she’d ever had. The carpet was very soft, she found as she stepped inside, and when she opened the closet she found it was ridiculously large—her clothing would only fill up a little corner, probably. There was also a desk and matching dresser, probably made of the expensive wood that rich people liked. The walls were painted a nice shade of blue, and there were two big windows letting in the evening light.

 

“I hope you like it,” said Scanlan, hovering awkwardly in the doorway. “This used to just be where I kept all my instruments and recording tech and stuff so I had to clear all that crap out and then I didn’t have a lot of time for decorating...but you can change it however you want! We could re-paint it and we can get posters or whatever—do you already have posters? Posters are what the young people like to hang in their rooms, right?” Kaylie laughed at that and Scanlan smiled a little self-deprecatingly. “I, uh, don’t know exactly what I’m doing,” he admitted, “which I’m sure has been abundantly clear to you all along and I probably don’t even need to say it. But, uh, feel free to tell me what to do whenever if you think that’ll...help?” He shrugged a little. “Anyway, you’re probably sick of me by now,” he added. “I’ll go get your stuff and let you get settled in, OK? We can get dinner in an hour or two.” And with that, he slinked away and Kaylie was left on her own, feeling a little dumbfounded.

 

The thing was, Kaylie had recognized by now that Scanlan cared about her, wanted her to like him. He didn’t have to offer to take her in but he did, and she had begrudgingly accepted that he was less of an asshole than she’d assumed. But she still didn’t see what he was doing as anything other than an attempt to assuage his guilt, maybe fueled by the misguided notion that he could swoop in when she was a few years away from graduation and be the perfect parent. Like it was even possible to make up for all the time he’d lost. And Kaylie still believed all that, still knew Scanlan was a self-absorbed idiot, but she was starting to realize that he was perhaps more aware of his flaws than she’d given him credit for. He was also surprisingly committed to this whole thing—he’d obviously put in a lot of work into getting her here and trying to make her comfortable, and it wasn’t enough to make up for the past fifteen years or something, but he probably wasn’t going to just give up and leave her to her own devices after a month of her being difficult like she’d anticipated. Probably.

 

Kaylie began to unpack her things and then spent a while looking at the bare blue walls. She’d never had posters before—hadn’t really had the wall space or the desire—but maybe a couple would be nice.

 

-

 

Kaylie started school less than a week after moving in—the timeframe for the whole custody process have apparently been constructed to make sure she didn’t have to move during the school year. Her new school was on the North Side (apparently the wealthier side of town) and ridiculously nice—she didn’t even want to think about how much more funding this place probably had compared to her old high school in Detroit. Scanlan may or may not have “pulled some strings” to get her in here on such short notice, but he was refusing to offer any details. At least it was still a public school, even if it was apparently one of the best-rated ones in the city; Scanlan had floated the idea of her going to some fancy private school during one of their early phone calls and she’d shut that down real quick. She really didn’t want to spend the next three years of her life surrounded by rich snobs.

 

Not that a lot of the kids at Lincoln Park High School weren’t rich and snobby, too, but some of them were pretty decent. Kaylie’s chemistry lab partner, a girl named Maura who commuted from the South Side, was pleasantly normal and enjoyed Kaylie’s sarcastic comments in class, so Kaylie figured she’d made her first friend here. Which was cool, even if it meant spending time with Maura’s boyfriend, Kevin, who was incredibly unpleasant to be around and who seemed to hit on every girl he talked to, including Kaylie. She considered telling him that he was barking up the wrong tree in every way possible, but that would involve A) acknowledging what he was doing, which would probably stir up some shit with Maura, who seemed to live in denial, and B) sharing more about herself than she was interested in with people she didn’t really know yet. So Kaylie ignored him, which was going pretty well so far.

 

Scanlan picked her up from school every day, despite her protests. She took the train every morning while he was hosting his Breakfast Show and she was more than capable of taking it back, but he insisted, spouting some bullshit about about how “the afternoon is like peak time for creeps on the El, Kaylie! It’s one thing when you’re on it at 7 in the morning and it’s all normal people going to work, but the weirdos definitely come out around three o’clock. I’ve lived in this city for years, OK, I know these things.” It was pretty obvious he just wanted the excuse to spend time with her, and she gave up complaining after the first couple weeks. Driving was faster, anyway, even if she did love the trains.

 

-

 

They settled into a routine, and it was still sort of uncomfortable, but it was alright. They still didn’t talk much; every few days, Scanlan would ask her if she wanted to watch a movie or play a board game or something, but she always turned him down in favor of homework or Maura. They ate dinner together every night, though—usually takeout, because Scanlan apparently didn’t know how to cook anything other than chicken and that got old pretty quickly.  

 

They didn’t have their first real fight until October, when Maura invited Kaylie over to her house at 11 at night and she just went. Scanlan was sleeping—he went to bed surprisingly early for someone with his personality, but he had to get up before 5 to host the breakfast show. Kaylie hopped on the red line and made it to Maura’s place without incident (there may have been a creepy-looking dude making eyes at her when she got off at Garfield, but he didn’t do anything and, she figured she could probably take him if she had to anyway) and ended up staying the night there when the trains stopped running. She woke up ridiculously early the next morning to a phone call from a frantic Scanlan asking where she was.

 

“At Maura’s,” she said, still fuzzy from sleep. “Why were you even looking for me? I’m never up this early.”

 

“But you’re usually _in the apartment_ this early,” he responded. “You were here last night at like ten o’clock—when did you leave? How did you get there?” Kaylie realized, after giving her brain a moment to wake up, that Scanlan must have looked in her room this morning to realize she was gone. Did he do that every morning?

 

“I left a little after you went to bed and I took the train,” said Kaylie, annoyed at being woken up this early over nothing. “Everything’s fine; you can go to work now.”

 

Scanlan sputtered on the other end and immediately started into one of those tirades adults went on when they thought a kid wasn’t being safe enough. Kaylie had received many over the years, but her mom was the only one who’d ever been able to actually make Kaylie care when she talked like that and Scanlan was definitely not her mom, so she hung up. It was too early for this shit.

 

The phone started ringing again a few seconds later, so she turned it off and went back to sleep.

 

He was waiting for her when she got home around noon and he immediately went of on a lecture about how dangerous that had been and how she had no idea what terrible sorts of things could happen in subway stations late and night, and Kaylie just lost it.

 

“Of course I fucking know!” she yelled at him. He opened his mouth to respond but she barrelled on through. “And I know a lot better than you! You think I’ve been living the last 15 years in some crime-free paradise? You think I haven’t had creepy men following me home since middle school?” That seemed to stun him into silence, at least, and Kaylie kept going, burning with an anger she hadn’t felt in over a month. “I was an easy target, right? Poor kid with no dad and a mom who was always at work? Small, and always alone. I learned how to take care of myself.”

 

“A lot of them tried to talk to me,” she continued. “told me I was pretty, asked what I was doing all alone. Some of them were pretty smooth about it, too—like you used to be, from what I’ve heard.” And Scanlan reacted to that exactly as anticipated, took it as the gut punch it was meant to be. But Kaylie wasn’t finished yet. “I mean, I know my mother wasn’t that young, but you definitely used her and fed her a bunch of bullshit before going on your way just like you probably did with dozens of other girls. You cared about her as much as all those guys cared about me.”

 

“Kaylie…” Scanlan said, looking positively wrecked. “I never—”

 

“Sure,” said Kaylie, brushing him off before he could finish. “You’re better now, you just want to help me, whatever. But I don’t need it. I can handle myself, so do us both a favor and stop pretending to be an actual parent.” Then she went into her room and slammed the door closed. She didn’t hear Scanlan move from his spot in the living room for a long time.

 

She stayed in her room all day, and there was a knock at the door around 7:30. “I made dinner,” Scanlan said from the other side of the door. “I’ll just...leave a plate here for you.” There was a long pause, but Kaylie didn’t hear any footsteps of him leaving. After a minute or so, he spoke again. “Look, what you said before...I get it, and I’m not going to try to refute it. But no matter how strong you are and how irrational it is, I’m still going to worry about you basically all the time. And I know that’s annoying for you and I’m sorry, but I can’t help it.” There was another pause; maybe he was waiting for Kaylie to say something, but she didn’t. She just sat on her bed, staring at the band posters on her walls and wondering why she was fighting back tears suddenly, until she heard him walk away.

 

She opened the door just enough to grab the plate of food. It was chicken, and for some reason that made her feel like laughing and crying at the same time.

 

-

 

Things were awkward as hell after that, but Kaylie went back to eating dinner in the kitchen with Scanlan and they mostly just tiptoed around each other and pretended nothing had happened.

 

The thing was, Kaylie was realizing more and more every day that Scanlan was actually not going anywhere, and that was sort of comforting in a way she didn’t really want to acknowledge.

 

About a week after the incident, Kaylie got a call from Maura in the middle of the night crying about some dumbass thing Kevin had done, and after a half hour of trying to calm her down over the phone, she decided this was something that called for in-person contact. She put on her shoes and was about to head out when she was reminded of Scanlan’s defeated voice outside her door. So, making a point of not thinking too hard about her reasons for what she was doing, she went into Scanlan’s room and shook him awake.

 

Scanlan looked up at her blearily and made a noise that sounded something like “Gwahh?” Kaylie realized suddenly that this was her first time actually entering Scanlan’s bedroom. She decided not to think about that, either.

 

“I’m going to Maura’s,” Kaylie told him once he seemed decently awake. “You’re not going to convince me not to go, but if you want, I can text you when I get there to let you know I’m safe.”

 

It took him a second to process her words, then he was sitting up and rifling through the contents of his bedside table. After a moment of searching, he handed her two $20 bills. “Take a taxi instead of the El?” he said, an imploring look in his eyes.

 

Kaylie considered making a comment about the ridiculous waste of money, but she stopped herself and accepted the cash instead. “Yeah, OK,” she said. “Thanks. Go back to sleep.”

 

She was opening his bedroom door again when she heard his voice behind her. “Thank you,” he said quietly. “...For telling me. And I still want that text when you get there.”

 

“You’re ridiculous,” Kaylie said over her shoulder as she kept walking, but she felt fond while she said it.

 

She texted him when she got there. He responded with several smiling emojis less than 30 seconds later.

 

-

 

It was the last Friday before Thanksgiving break and Kaylie was having a truly awful day. Maura and Kevin had finally broken up, which should have been cause for celebration, except for some reason Kevin had actually been the one to dump _her_ , and Maura had gotten it in her head that this was connected to all the flirting he’d done with Kaylie. So now Maura wasn’t speaking to Kaylie because she was convinced Kaylie had been plotting to steal her boyfriend or something, which made absolutely zero sense if one knew Kaylie at _all_ , but apparently the only friend Kaylie had made in this shithole of a school wasn’t really much of a friend at all, or a decent person for that matter.

 

Maybe Kaylie was being overdramatic, but she didn’t much care.

 

She was planning on silently sulking for the whole drive home and then immediately going to her room to sulk some more, but when she got to the car, Scanlan was waiting for her with wide eyes and a “how was school today?” sounding like he genuinely cared (like he always did, she was starting to realize) and suddenly she didn’t want to hide away and stew in self-pity all alone anymore.

 

“It was shitty,” she said as she got into the car, and Scanlan was clearly surprised that she’d replied with anything other than “fine,” which had been her answer every other time he’d asked. “But I really don’t want to talk about it, OK?” He nodded quickly and, after realizing she wasn’t going to say anything else, launched into a story about something that had happened to him at work that day. In a way, the drive home was like any other day—Scanlan chattering away while Kaylie looked out the window—except this time she was actually listening. And she found it helped a little.

 

When they got home, Kaylie lingered in the living room, not willing to give up the human contact. “Do you want to watch a movie or something?” she asked after a moment.

 

Scanlan looked at her in open shock, which she guessed was fair since he’d asked her that question countless times and she’d always brushed him off. But today, it seemed like just the thing. “Really?” he said. “I mean, sure! Of course! What do you want to watch? I’ve got Netflix, or I could go get us a DVD, or—”

 

“Whatever’s fine,” said Kaylie, settling onto the couch. “A comedy would be good. Something light.”

 

They wound up watching three stupid romcoms in a row, ordering pizza during the second one and eating it on the couch. Scanlan fell asleep during the third one, so she poked him awake at the end and said “Time for bed, old man.”

 

He smiled as he nodded and got up, then started walking towards his room before stopping and turning around. “Uh, so I know you probably don’t want to, and that’s fine,” he said, “but...if you ever want to talk about anything, I’d love to listen.” He gave a little self-deprecating laugh. “I mean, I know it probably seems like I never shut up, but I can be pretty good at listening, too.” There was a pause, and Kaylie nodded. “Just something to think about,” he said before turning back around and heading into his room.

 

And she did think about it, a little. Maybe someday she’d take him up on it.

 

-

 

The next day, Kaylie slept in until noon and when she emerged from her room, she heard unfamiliar voices in the kitchen. She approached cautiously and saw Scanlan and three people she didn’t know crowded together by the island. When she reached the doorway, they all looked up and the conversation stopped suddenly.

 

“Kaylie!” said Scanlan. “Guys, this is my beautiful, amazing daughter, Kaylie. Kaylie, these are my friends who came over uninvited this morning! Sorry if we surprised you.”

 

“Ouch,” murmured one of said friends, but he was smiling.

 

“Anyway! These are Vex and Vax,” said Scanlan, motioning to the two individuals with long, dark hair who looked very similar. “They’re twins. Don’t worry about which is which—nobody really remembers. I get it wrong all the time and I’ve known them for years.” The male twin (Vax, she was pretty sure) laughed while his sister rolled her eyes. “And this,” Scanlan continued, gesturing toward a blond man with glasses, “is their boyfriend Percy.”

 

Kaylie tilted her head, trying to figure out if she’d heard right. “I see you’re confused,” said Scanlan. “Let me explain.” Vex opened her mouth to speak but Scanlan barrelled on ahead. “Percy is gay for Vax but he’s straight for Vex, and—”

 

There’s a collective groan from the three in question. “I thought we agreed that you would stop quoting _Parks and Recreation_ every time you introduced us,” said Percy, pushing his glasses up to rub the bridge of his nose and generally looking put-upon but sort of resigned at the same time. “It’s not exactly the best example of a polyamorous—”

 

“That’s the word!” said Scanlan, snapping his fingers and apparently ignoring everything else Percy had said. “They’re polyamorous. Do you kids these days all know about polyamory already?” Kaylie laughed a little and nodded. She didn’t know about all the other ‘kids these days,’ but she was definitely aware.

 

“Vax and Vex are not dating each other at all, just to be clear,” Scanlan added, to which the other three immediately reacted with scandalized noises (the twins) and a defeated sigh (Percy).

 

“You don’t need to say that!” Vax exclaimed loudly. “That is not something that was ever on the table at _all_ , you fucking sicko.”

 

“Well, you’re both kind of involved in the same relationship, so it wouldn’t be that odd for someone to wonder—” Scanlan seemed to be having fun until he was cut off.

 

“It really would. Jesus Christ, Scanlan, and you were worried about _us_ being inappropriate in front of your daughter?” Vax was scowling, but Kaylie thought she could see a little amusement behind it. Percy appeared to be trying not to laugh with his head in his hands.

 

“I just wanted to clear it up, since your relationship can be a little confusing to newcomers,” said Scanlan with a dismissive hand. “Ooh!” he added, turning to Kaylie. “Did I mention that they’ve all been living together since before any part of their relationship started? Don’t follow their example, Kaylie, it’s usually a very bad idea to date your roommates.”

 

Kaylie just raised a skeptical eyebrow in response to Scanlan’s tangent. “I don’t think I’m going to be taking any dating advice from you, Scanlan,” she said with a smirk.

 

There was a dramatic “oooh” at this from the twins. “That’s some excellent judgment on your part, Kaylie,” said Vex. “Your daughter’s got a good head on her shoulders,” she said to Scanlan. “Must not have come from you.”

 

Scanlan sputtered. “I don’t have to take this sort of abuse in my own home!” he declared, grinning the  whole time. “Why, I should—” but before he could go any further, his phone was ringing. He looked at it and said “Hold that thought, I’m not done with you three yet” before going out into the hall to answer the call.

 

“What did I do?” Percy wondered aloud as Scanlan left. The others laughed but offered no response. He probably wasn’t expecting one, anyway.

 

“Sooo,” said Vax after a moment, “It’s really great to finally meet you, Kaylie! We’ve heard a lot about you but Scanlan hasn’t let anyone come over since you moved in, so you’ve been like a mystery to all of us.”

 

Kaylie had wondered occasionally why there were never any other adults in the apartment, since Scanlan seemed like a very social person who would have a lot of friends, but she hadn’t really thought about it too much. “I didn’t know that,” she told Vax. “Did you guys come here often before?”

 

“All the time!” said Vax, who was immediately elbowed in the side by his sister.

 

“Not that we’re upset about it or anything,” Vex said, giving Vax a meaningful look. “It makes perfect sense that you should have your own space. But we did used to spend quite a bit of time here, yes. Scanlan has the nicest place out of anyone in our...group of friends.”

 

Kaylie nodded; that made sense. “But you must’ve gotten sick of being kept out, since you showed up today,” she commented.

 

“Oh, it was nothing like that,” said Percy at the exact same moment that Vax said, “We just wanted to interrogate him about where he was last night.”

 

That earned Vax another glare from his sister, but Kaylie was focused on his words. “Last night?” she repeated.

 

“Yeah!” said Vax. “Maybe you can help us solve the mystery. See, he has this thing with our friend Pike—do you know about Pike?” Kaylie shook her head. “Huh,” said Vax. “Well, he’s been trying to get her to go out with him for a really long time. And they have this tradition, it’s been going on for ages, I’m not sure when it started, where on the day after her birthday every year, he takes her out somewhere and proposes. And it’s like sort of a joke but not really? Anyway, he’s never missed before until last night and he apparently cancelled at the last minute with no explanation, so we’re all really curious what happened. ‘Cause, like, he plans those things out weeks in advance, so it must have been something pretty big that came up to make him miss it.”

 

Kaylie blinked. Vex started talking, something about how her brother really shouldn’t be telling her all this, but Kaylie wasn’t really listening. Because last night, they’d eaten pizza on the couch in front of the TV. Last night, she’d asked Scanlan to watch a movie with her and he hadn’t hesitated for a second.

 

“I...need to go,” Kaylie said, interrupting Percy in the middle of a sentence she hadn’t been listening to, before bolting out the front door of the apartment.

 

-

 

She wandered the city aimlessly for a few hours, trying to clear her thoughts and failing miserably. When she headed back, it was because she realized she needed to get out of the cold—she hadn’t thought to grab a proper jacket before leaving, and the temperature was dropping as December drew near.

 

So, her head was still a total mess when she returned to the apartment to see Percy and the twins leaving, bidding her father goodbye as they walked out the door. She greeted them awkwardly, hoping they’d forgotten her weirdness earlier, and entered the living room to find Scanlan sitting on the couch in a bright pink T-shirt he definitely hadn’t been wearing when she saw him last.

 

“Kaylie!” said Scanlan when he saw her. He smiled before looking down at his shirt, then looking back at her with wide eyes and an expression somewhere between embarrassment and fear. “This isn’t—uh, the guys got me this as a joke a while ago, and they were complaining about how I never wear it, so I put it on so they could put a picture in the group chat and everyone would be happy. But it’s not...how about I just take it off now and never wear it again and we can just pretend it doesn’t exist?”

 

It was only about midway through Scanlan’ awkward rant that Kaylie noticed the lettering on the shit. “#1 Dad,” it said, and when Scanlan finished talking, Kaylie just started laughing hysterically.

 

“Kaylie?” said Scanlan, sounding understandably confused. This was probably the most emotion he’d ever seen her show. And Kaylie wanted to respond, but she couldn’t stop fucking laughing, so she just collapsed onto the couch next to him. “Are you...OK?” Scanlan asked after a moment, and she nodded, still laughing the whole time. “Alright then,” Scanlan said cautiously. “I’ll just wait for you to finish, then.”

 

It took a while for Kaylie to calm down enough to speak, and she paused to wipe the tears out of her eyes first. “The shirt is good,” she finally managed. “It’s…” she searched for the right word but didn’t find it. “...Good. You should wear it as much as you want. I don’t mind.”

 

Scanlan smiled a sort of disbelieving smile. “Really?” he said.

 

“Yeah,” said Kaylie. “I mean, it’s not like it’s entirely factual, but you’re pretty decent. Probably better than a lot of the other guys who wear that shirt.”

 

Scanlan’s smile widened. “You think so?” he said with obvious excitement before reigning it in a little. “I mean, it is still a ridiculous shirt.”

 

“Completely ridiculous,” Kaylie agreed. “Which means it suits you perfectly, doesn’t it?

  
They both laughed at that, and Kaylie felt, for the first time in a very long time, that maybe everything would be all right. She had a family again. She’d had one for a while now. 

**Author's Note:**

> The lovely art you can see above that this fic was based on was drawn my Marshmallowmoth, who you can find on tumblr. 
> 
> I'm also on tumblr as Zawkeye - feel free to come say hi!
> 
> Many thanks to Attila for beta-ing for me. Any mistakes still present are definitely my own, since I didn't have time to have her look at the finished story before I posted it because I am horrible at time management and I needed to post by the deadline. Whoops.


End file.
